Lone brown pelican visits lakes inWindsor

A brown pelican making the rounds is causing quite a stir with pelican lovers in Windsor.

The bird that’s been sighted at Fossil Creek Reservoir west of Windsor has also been spotted on Rockbridge Lake at Water Valley and Jo Dee Reservoir in the River West subdivision, just south of Colo. 392 west of Windsor.

Jim Jensen, a Water Valley resident, said he’s seen the brown pelican for a few weeks on Rockbridge Lake.

“I’ve been watching him dive and get fish,” said Jensen, who is also the vice-president of marketing at Water Valley. “This guy’s been over here for, like, two weeks. It’s the first one I’ve seen out here, and I’ve seen him every day out here.”

The brown pelican in Colorado is extremely rare compared to the American white pelican, which nests throughout Weld County.

According to Colorado Field Ornithologists, which keeps track of bird sightings, brown pelicans have only been spotted in Colorado 14 times.

Recommended Stories For You

The brown pelican typically nests along the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines.

Windsor residents Carl and Sue Sorrentino, who live in a patio home on the water at River West, saw the brown pelican two nights in a row.

Carl Sorrentino, a volunteer naturalist for Fort Collins and Larimer County, said he saw the pelican on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. He said he was about 30 yards from the pelican.

“This is rare. I actually saw him catch a fish,” Sorrentino said. “They hit beak first, and you think they’re breaking their neck. They just, bang, hit the water. The other night he hit, jumped back up and the bottom of his beak got the wiggly fish in there. That was a thrill.”

Sorrentino said the pelican might have got mixed in with a flock of American white pelicans or blown off course when the white pelicans migrated to Weld County.

“Now he’s kind of a loaner and just goes out hunting and finding what he can at different places,” Sorrentino said.